Financial Institutions That Made Hefty Campaign Donations Score Big Bucks From the Government

Helena, MT — The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) was intended to stabilize the country's financial sector by distributing hundreds of billions of dollars. On February 4, 2009, the Center for Responsive Politics released a report examining beneficiaries of the $700 billion bailout package in the finance and automotive industries. CRP, which focuses on federal contributions, found, "The companies that have been awarded taxpayers' money from Congress's bailout bill spent $77 million on lobbying and $37 million on federal campaign contributions …The return on investment: 258,449 percent."

A new report released by FollowTheMoney.org looks at a seven-year span of campaign contributions given at the state level. Researchers examined the records of 75 financial institutions that received TARP funds and have contributed to state-level politics from 2000 to 2007. Results reveal they gave $20.4 million: 62% went to statewide candidates; 27% to political parties; and 11% to ballot measure committees.

The majority of the funds went to three states: California ($2.9 million), New York ($2.3 million) and Ohio ($2.1 million). Only 18 of the 75 identified institutions were headquartered in those three states.

State-level candidates received the majority of the contributions ($12.6 million), followed by party committees ($5.5 million) and ballot measure committees ($2.3 million).

Committees affiliated with the Republican Party received $11.1 million of the $18.1 million given to all candidates and political parties. Committees affiliated with the Democratic Party received $7 million.

Individual donors employed by the financial institutions in this analysis contributed an additional $4.7 million to state-level political committees during the same period.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan FollowTheMoney.org collects and analyzes campaign contribution information for state-level candidates, political party committees, and ballot committees. Its free, searchable database of contributions, as well as the full text of this report are available online at FollowTheMoney.org.